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I tend to be more of a novel writer. In fact, some of my novels started out as short stories, and I just got carried away! I think some of my best writing is in the short story form, but novels come more naturally to me.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

I consider myself a writer. I don't favour any type of writing. I sometimes wish short stories came more easily to me.

Since childhood, I wrote a lot of fiction, a lot of stories, but I most loved writing essays.

I have some other novels I want to write. I have a lot of short stories - I love the short story.

Novels are so much unrulier and more stressful to write. A short story can last two pages and then it's over, and that's kind of a relief. I really like balancing the two.

I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.

Writing is incidental to my primary objective, which is spinning a good yarn. I view myself as a storyteller more than a writer. The story - and hence the extensive research that goes into each one of my books - is much more important than the words that I use to narrate it.